Cyanide

Cyanide is an extremely toxic ion chemical composed of carbon and nitrogen. It can be a colourless gas, such as hydrogen cyanide, and its odor is similar to that of almonds.

Regardless of the toxicity of cyanide, using cyanide recovery in mining for gold from its ores is no new method. This is because using cyanide recovery in mining is very economical; it can be reused and huge amounts are not needed as only a little is required to dissolve the gold. The process of gold extraction using cyanide involves a weak cyanide solution being added to the ore, causing the gold to dissolve into the solution and thus forming a gold cyanide complex. The gold is then recovered from this gold cyanide solution by using various methods, such as carbon adsorption, ion-exchange resin or zinc dust precipitation.

Conventionally, using cyanide in mining was extremely hazardous to the environment. Circular tanks were used, taking up a large land footprint. Materials were used in excess, increasing unnecessary costs. APT recognized the need to a more safe, economical solution when it came to using cyanide in mining and we came up with incorporating six triangular tanks into one circular tank labelled the TriTank, as opposed to six separate circular tanks. This largely decreased the land footprint as the TriTank can be made at either a very large or very small scale, and this also vastly reduced the materials required. A host of benefits range from enhanced dissolution are included making this solution far beyond anything ever created in the cyanide in mining world.

You can find more on the APT TriTank under our products section here on our website, and feel free to contact us to know more about this plant.

Fun fact: Smoking cigarettes is probably one of the major sources of cyanide exposure for people who do not work in cyanide-related industries.